1. Field of the Invention
This application is a continuation of copending PCT International Application Number PCT/GB02/03640 having an International Filing Date of 7 Aug. 2002, and which was published in English as International Publication Number WO 03/013670 A1 on 20 Feb. 2003, and which claims the benefit of priority application GB 0119404.2 filed 9 Aug. 2001. This invention relates to an all-terrain board.
2. Related Background Art
Boards for use in the sport of all-terrain boarding, or mountain boarding are well known. Typically, such all-terrain boards comprise an elongate deck structure having axles adjacent opposite ends thereof, which extend transversely under the deck structure and respectively carry a pair of wheels. Large all-terrain wheels having a diameter of perhaps 7 to 12 inches are provided, since smaller wheels do not perform well on very uneven or rugged terrain and are therefore limited to being used on fairly smooth off-road terrains.
Known all-terrain boards have had problems in achieving the levels of freestyle performance that are available from other board sports such as skateboarding, surfing or snow boarding. Accordingly, the sport of all-terrain boarding has not managed to become a mainstream board sport and remains a peripheral activity with a very small percentage of board riders participating in the sport. Typically, a mainstream board sport will be dominated by 84 to 99% freestyle products, with only 1 to 16% being accounted for by downhill style products, such as known all-terrain boards.
One of the main reasons that known all-terrain boards have not had comparable freestyle performance to boards used in other board sports is because the large all-terrain wheels correspondingly raise the height of the deck structure, thereby making the deck structure too high off the ground for good balance when riding the board: good balance from a low deck structure is necessary for a successful all-terrain board, since off road terrains can be very uneven.
Another problem of a high deck structure on uneven terrain is that it causes speed wobbles. It has been proposed to overcome this problem by increasing the wheelbase of the board. However, a disadvantage of a long board is that they are unsuitable for effecting freestyle maneuvers, and are thus limited to downhill boarding.
Also, a vital factor in good freestyle riding and board control is the provision of an upturned end or so-called kicktail at the rear of the deck structure, on which the rider can place one foot rearwardly of the rear axle and use his weight to pivot the front end of the board upwardly about the rear axle. In this manner, turns can be effected by redirecting the front of the board whilst only the rear wheels are in contact with the ground. The kicktail also enables the front of the board to be raised to clear or mount obstacles: this also allows the rider to effect considerable jumps by springing off the kicktail.
All-terrain boards are known which comprise a kicktail. However, the combination of a kicktail with the relatively high deck structure makes it very difficult to balance when effecting turns and other maneuvers using the kicktail. In order to overcome this problem, it has been proposed to use smaller wheels to correspondingly lower the deck structure. Wheels on such boards usually range between 4 to 6 inches in diameter, resulting in poor performance on uneven terrain. However, even with a reduced wheel size, known boards still have problems with the deck structure being too high for good balance. In addition to this, the kicktail itself is so high off the ground that its performance is greatly reduced and does not match the sort of freestyle kicktail performance that is available from skate boards.
Another disadvantage of known all-terrain boards is that the axle on the underside of the deck structure can foul obstacles such as rocks and logs. Thus, the board does not have the ability to ride over such obstacles.
I have now devised an all-terrain board which alleviates the above-mentioned problems and which can provide the combination and variety of performance criteria necessary to allow complete board riding in all-terrain environments with a high level of freestyle performance comparable to that which is available from other board sports such as skateboarding, surfing and snow boarding.